Taking Responsibility

Positive and Negative . . .

Every moment in our lives presents us an opportunity to evolve our consciousness. Stuff happens that we don’t like. Our plans get blocked, our hopes don’t turn out the way we wanted, people get hurt or someone is mean to us. All sorts of things that we don’t like are happening to us or around us all the time.

Our conditioning is to push away the “negative” thing and try to hold on to the “positive” things. But that doesn’t really work as life always presents us with both positive and negative. That is part of living in a relative world on planet earth.

“If you argue with life, you lose.”

This is one of my favorite sayings. If you really watch life, you will find that it is true. Life happens. What is, is what is. A family member is mean or greedy. Your child gets a bad grade in a class. Someone dies. You do something that you later regret.

This is life. Stuff happens. No matter how little we dislike something, that isn’t going to change what has already happened.

Buttons

We all have buttons or triggers. If you watch your experience, certain things set you off. If you watch this, you will see patterns in your reactions and thinking. Some examples are:

Angry people sent you running away in fear.

Something that you perceive as unfair or an injustice trigger anger in you.

You attract people who don’t seem to hear or appreciate you. You feel unappreciated, unloved or worthless.

Opportunities

Every time one of your buttons gets pushed, you have an opportunity. You can rant and rave and tell the world how awful life is. You can go within and look at your button. Being conscious around our buttons being pushed is an opportunity to expand our consciousness. Often, our buttons are an opportunity to release a negative emotion or belief.

Feeling our emotions is freeing

I discovered years ago that often when I wanted another person or circumstances to be different that I wanted to change the outside, because I didn’t want to feel the emotion that had been triggered within. Once I took the time to go within and feel the emotion, I would feel free, empowered and not upset by the same circumstances.

Going within, identifying the emotion and the belief that holds that emotion in place is the first step in freeing yourself from negative life patterns and situations. It also helps if you can identify the underlying source of that emotions or belief. Maybe angry people trigger fear in you because you grew up in an alcoholic household and anger was a precursor to being beaten.

A shift in consciousness

Once the emotion is felt and the underlying belief and source is identified, you will not react to a similar situation in the same way. You will have the opportunity to meet life with more awareness. With more awareness, you have more options available to you. You have the power of choice. Rather than reacting blindly to the world outside, you are more empowered to respond differently and create a new inner reality. This is evolution in action.

Awareness Practice for this month

This month, watch how you react to different situations in your life. Notice what your Buttons are. Become aware of patterns and similar situations that trigger you. Notice what emotion you are feeling underneath your thoughts. Feel your feelings. Watch your thought patterns. Notice what begins to unfold as you begin to expand your awareness of your inner world in this way.